E.—l2.

72

[k. CAMPBELL.

129. Do you think it would be wise to allow any teacher sitting for the D certificate to receive credit for any one or more subjects in which he passes? —I do. 130. The Chairman.] I was going to call your attention to section 5 of your remit—the cost of education should be provided by general taxation,- and no portion raised by local rates —can you indicate to-the Commission what the mind of your Institute is upon the question as to what the cost of education is intended to cover ?—We considered simply the whole cost of elementary education; we did not consider anything beyond primary education. 131. You are not taking into account the cost of technical education at all? —No, not in this. 132. Mr. Wells.] Do you know of any complaint in this district in regard to the clerical work required of teachers outside that required for the manual-work returns? —I do not know of anyrecent cases. 133. There is no grumbling about the amount of clerical work?— Not now. 134. Or in connection with the drilling? —Some years ago we had many complaints to make, but not recently. 135. Mr. Davidson.] You stated that your objection to local taxation for educational purposes was mainly on account of the sparsely populated districts being unable to provide the same facilities for education as the more densely populated parts can do. If the Government granted subsidies upon a sliding scale upon the amount raised by local taxation, would that not make provision for the education in these districts?— The difficulty might possibly- be got over in that way. Norman Roderick McKenzie examined on oath. (No. 4.) 1. The Chairman.] What are your educational qualifications?—Bl. 2. What are j-ou ?—Headmaster of the Mount Eden School, and President of the Headmasters' Association. I have seen the statement handed in by Mr. Campbell, and I wish to amplify that on behalf of the Headmasters' Association. In regard to some points, I have not consulted my own Association, and in this I will simply- offer my own personal opinion. 3. Do you agree with the evidence of Mr. Campbell, or do ybu disagree with it?—My association agrees in general with this document. 4. You heard Mr. Campbell give his evidence : are there any points in it to which you take exception I —Nothing vital. 5. There is nothing of importance in the matters he touched on with which you differ from him?— Nothing of any importance. 6. We would like to hear your statement as the mouthpiece of the Headmasters' Association? —The first point has already been touched on. We strongly support the abolition of small Boards, and I shall deal with that more fully under clause 5. As to clause 2 of the order of reference, my association is strongly in favour of breaking up the class D into two or three sections. The reason is this :we get many pupil-teachers entering the service through the Boards' candidates' examination, which is very little in advance of Standard VI. They have to work from four to five hours, and I think, taking our district as a whole, even the first-year pupilteachers have to work five hours —not in every school, but in many schools. The result is that they find it extremely difficult to deal with so many subjects at the time, and to deal with them satisfactorily. We consider there are far too many subjects in the first section. There are some fourteen subjects altogether, and the candidate has to attempt something like twelve, though not necessarily to pass them all. Several of these twelve subjects he may fail in, but we consider it is better to take fewer. With regard to the class B examination, we think that every candidate should pass in the subject of edusation up to the B.A. standard. Education is such a veryimportant subject that we think it should be made a compulsory subject up to the B.A. standard. It is only compulsory now up to the class C standard. In the class C paper we consider that the B.A. subjects which they have to take should include education. To get B you must take at least three subjects to get to the B.A. standard. As to clause 3 of the order of reference, we strongly support the Dominion system of promotion of teachers, based on the principles advocated by the New Zealand Educational Institute. These are the clauses in the report of the Institute : " 2. That the following principles are essential to any sound scheme of promotion : (a.) Efficiency of the service must be the first consideration in the appointment of any teacher, (b.) In the grading of teachers for promotion, efficiency of the teacher must be the first consideration, and literary or other qualifications, as well as length of service, must be subordinated to this, (c.) The efficiency of the teacher can be gauged only by experts, (d.) Provision must be made for appointment on merit, (c.) Provision must be made for the grading of classes in a few well-defined grades. (/.) Other things being considered equal, seniority of teacher should then be the determining factor, (g.) Each teacher's prospect of promotion should be shown as definitely as possible on a promotion list, which should be revised at periods not greater than one year. (A.) The necessity for a guarantee against reduction of salary (except on proof of loss of efficiency)." That has been provided for by recent regulations. We feel, also, that there should be some right of appeal. That is the weak spot in the Auckland scheme. In the Dominion system, of course, the pull would be to the Minister. I might explain that in Victoria a similar system is in force. The appeal there is to the Public Service Commissioner, and I notice in the Gazette that -appeals are frequently successful. In every year there are several successful appeals. 7. Mr. Poland.] Are the appeals frequent?— Yes; f think the appeals are more frequent than the successes. As to clause 4of the order of reference, that has been partly dealt with by Mr. Campbell, but we would suggest a Dominion scale of salaries for manual-training teachers and teachers in technical schools. We are of opinion that manual training should be a part of the ordinary curriculum in every- school. As to clause 5 of the order of reference, I have mentioned the abolition of small Boards is advocated, We think about four Boards could manage